What to look at when purchasing a box of CAT5e/CAT6 Network Cables

One thing I always look for when buying a box of CAT5e/6 cable, is the quality of the wire itself. I know tech’s that cable a lot and always ‘buy X brand over Y brand’. But let’s be honest, just because a guy likes Burger King over McDonald’s, doesn’t mean that the BK Whopper on occasion won’t taste like that 3-week old Tuna Sandwich you decided to have for lunch. Cable, like any other technology, is manufactured in mass quantities, and is bound to occasionally have a bad batch.

So a quick thing that I do at the store when I buy cable (and it only takes 2 seconds) is to check the cable to see if it’s brittle.

The outer jacket is pretty easy to determine if it’s too brittle (slight bend causes it to almost snap at a 45 degree angle), however, for the wires themselves, physically ‘fan out and smooth’ the wires as if you’re about to push them into the RJ-45 plug. If they snap in half, that’s a good indication that quality is poor.

Twisted-Pair Patch Cable

9/10 the cable may will probably be alright, but it takes 2 seconds to check, and it could save you a lot of heartache when your trying to make your own network cables.